How Old Is the Universe?

Astronomers have determined that our universe is 13.7 billion years old. How exactly did they come to this precise conclusion? How Old Is the Universe? tells the incredible story of how astronomers solved one of the most compelling mysteries in science and, along the way, introduces listeners to fundamental concepts and cutting-edge advances in modern astronomy.

The Universe: Leading Scientists Explore the Origin, Mysteries, and Future of the Cosmos

In The Universe, today's most influential science writers explain the science behind our evolving understanding of The Universe and everything in it, including the cutting-edge research and discoveries that are shaping our knowledge. Lee Smolin reveals how math and cosmology are helping us create a theory of the whole universe. Neil Turok analyzes the fundamental laws of nature, what came before the big bang, and the possibility of a unified theory. And much more.

The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity

Physicists have been exploring, debating, and questioning the general theory of relativity ever since Albert Einstein first presented itin 1915. Their work has uncovered a number of the universe's more surprising secrets, and many believe further wonders remain hidden within the theory's tangle of equations, waiting to be exposed. In this sweeping narrative of science and culture, astrophysicist Pedro Ferreira brings general relativity to life through the story of the brilliant physicists, mathematicians, and astronomers who have taken up its challenge.

At the Edge of Uncertainty: 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise

The atom, the big bang, DNA, natural selection - all are ideas that have revolutionized science; and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, best-selling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.

Edge of the Universe: A Voyage to the Cosmic Horizon and Beyond

An accessible look at the mysteries that lurk at the edge of the known universe and beyond. The observable universe, the part we can see with telescopes, is incredibly vast. Yet recent theories suggest that there is far more to the universe than what our instruments record - in fact, it could be infinite. Colossal flows of galaxies, large empty regions called voids, and other unexplained phenomena offer clues that our own "bubble universe" could be part of a greater realm called the multiverse.

First Life: Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began

This pathbreaking book explores how life can begin, taking us from cosmic clouds of stardust, to volcanoes on Earth, to the modern chemistry laboratory. Seeking to understand life's connection to the stars, David Deamer introduces astrobiology, a new scientific discipline that studies the origin and evolution of life on Earth and relates it to the birth and death of stars, planet formation, interfaces between minerals, water, and atmosphere, and the physics and chemistry of carbon compounds.

Smashing Physics: Inside the Discovery of the Higgs Boson

The first insider account of the work at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the discovery of the Higgs particle - and what it all means for our understanding of the laws of nature. The discovery of the Higgs boson made headlines around the world. Two scientists, Peter Higgs and François Englert, whose theories predicted its existence, shared a Nobel Prize. The discovery was the culmination of the largest experiment ever run, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality

A physicist speeds across space, time, and everything in between showing that our elegant universe from the Higgs boson to antimatter to the most massive group of galaxies is shaped by hidden symmetries that have driven all our recent discoveries about the universe and all the ones to come. Why is the sky dark at night? Is it possible to build a shrink-ray gun? If there is antimatter, can there be antipeople? Why are past, present, and future our only options? Are time and space like a butterfly's wings? No one but Dave Goldberg, the coolest nerd physicist on the planet, could give a hyper-drive tour of the universe like this one.

The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter

The ordinary atoms that make up the known universe - from our bodies and the air we breathe to the planets and stars - constitute only 5 percent of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The rest is known as dark matter and dark energy, because their precise identities are unknown. The Cosmic Cocktail is the inside story of the epic quest to solve one of the most compelling enigmas of modern science - what is the universe made of? - told by one of today’s foremost pioneers in the study of dark matter.

The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People

In his last book, Neil Shubin delved into the amazing connections between human anatomy - our hands, our jaws - and the structures in the fish that first took over land 375 million years ago. Now, with his trademark clarity and exuberance, he takes an even more expansive approach to the question of why we are the way we are. Starting once again with fossils, Shubin turns his gaze skyward. He shows how the entirety of the universe's 14-billion-year history can be seen in our bodies.

Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes

A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: what does it mean to be human? What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009.

The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World

Scientists have just announced an historic discovery on a par with the splitting of the atom: The Higgs boson, the key to understanding why mass exists has been found. In The Particle at the End of the Universe, Caltech physicist and acclaimed writer Sean Carroll takes readers behind the scenes of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to meet the scientists and explain this landmark event.

How It Began: A Time-Traveler's Guide to the Universe

In this vibrant, eye-opening tour of milestones in the history of our universe, Chris Impey guides us through space and time, leading us from the familiar sights of the night sky to the dazzlingly strange aftermath of the Big Bang. Because it takes time for light to travel, we see more and more distant regions of the universe as they were in the successively greater past. Impey uses this concept - "look-back time" - to take us on an intergalactic tour that is simultaneously out in space and back in time.

Publisher's Summary

Astronomers have determined that our universe is 13.7 billion years old. How exactly did they come to this precise conclusion? How Old Is the Universe? tells the incredible story of how astronomers solved one of the most compelling mysteries in science and, along the way, introduces listeners to fundamental concepts and cutting-edge advances in modern astronomy.

The age of our universe poses a deceptively simple question, and its answer carries profound implications for science, religion, and philosophy. David Weintraub traces the centuries-old quest by astronomers to fathom the secrets of the nighttime sky. Describing the achievements of the visionaries whose discoveries collectively unveiled a fundamental mystery, he shows how many independent lines of inquiry and much painstakingly gathered evidence, when fitted together like pieces in a cosmic puzzle, led to the long-sought answer. Astronomers don't believe the universe is 13.7 billion years old - they know it. You will too after listening to this book.

By focusing on one of the most crucial questions about the universe and challenging readers to understand the answer, Weintraub familiarizes listeners with the ideas and phenomena at the heart of modern astronomy, including red giants and white dwarfs, cepheid variable stars and supernovae, clusters of galaxies, gravitational lensing, dark matter, dark energy and the accelerating universe - and much more.

Offering a unique historical approach to astronomy, How Old Is the Universe? sheds light on the inner workings of scientific inquiry and reveals how astronomers grapple with deep questions about the physical nature of our universe.

Has How Old Is the Universe? turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, but I will think twice about buying anything else published by Audible

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This has been an extremely frustrating book to listen to. The narrator's cadence is EXTREMELY unnatural. He sounds like he has to pause to flip a page in the middle of a sentence — EVERY sentence. I truly believe a computer would have done a better job of narrating this book.

Any additional comments?

I've listened to dozens of audiobooks over the past 12 years, and this was the worst performance I've ever endured.

What did you like best about How Old Is the Universe?? What did you like least?

This is an excellent book summarizing the history of cosmology, particularly the age of the universe. Unfortunately, the reader is terrible. He reads as if he is late for an appointment and just wants to get to the end. Also, he clearly spent no time learning how to pronounce names and words that are well known amongst astronomers.

What other book might you compare How Old Is the Universe? to and why?

I recommend an interested reader try Cosmology: A Very Short History. It's a bit dense, but it is at least listenable.

What didn’t you like about Brad Smith’s performance?

I didn't like any aspect of Brad Smith's performance. His reading was rushed and was like listening to a jack-hammer. I have listened to hundreds of audiobooks, and I think he rates as one of the worst readers I have ever come across.

Did How Old Is the Universe? inspire you to do anything?

Listen to other relevant audiobooks with a better reader.

Any additional comments?

It would be great if this book could be re-recorded with a different reader. It is simply unlistenable right now.

Surely sometimes it is all beyond my comprehension but I still find it all so fascinating. That us humans have the mind and the curiosity to sit down and figure all this out. Thousands of people with their different skills in imagination, mathematics, logic and more have been drawn to try to make sense of what it is we see when we look up into the sky, day or night. I look up and I am in awe mostly. Though now after reading this book the awe is both what I see and now what I know. The story is very well told and so much information is packed into this one book. It is all so amazing. This is also a book I will and have already listen to over and over again. Each time I seem to understand more.

What other book might you compare How Old Is the Universe? to and why?

This is another great book which to me brings Einstein's genius to light so much so you are amazed that the human race was able to bring into existence such a brilliant thinker. What a special gift he was to all of us. (Though this is a personal comment and is not in the book, to think that the ignorance and hate of Nazi Germany would have killed a man such as Einstein is to me a terrible thought.)

What does Brad Smith bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He is amazing with his narration. His tone is fairly neutral and he is able to present some very complicated ideas in a voice that makes you almost see it. It is somewhat of a long book over 10 hours and if his reading wasn't just perfect it would have ruined the experience, but of course just the opposite happens. Though not everyone agrees with me, and maybe it is my laziness, but I so enjoy lying on my bed in comfort and be able to just listen to such wonderful writings as done by the author and read by Brad Smith. Truly a joy of our modern day society. I find this so with audio. I believe it allows for my "self" to relax and take in what it being said in a way reading the book or watching a video doesn't allow to happen. I can just float in my imagination and enjoy!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

In a sense surely one has a certain feeling of joy when you hear of someone's success after so great an effort and then of course the opposite happens when you see a great effort and focus on finding a solution and failure is the end result. Even worse is finding a solution and have your fellow humans punish you for being brilliant. Surely science history is man at his best trying to understand and make sense of what he/she is experiencing. Another good reason to listen to the book for it not only helps you learn it also helps you experience the greatness of humans at trying to satisfy our curiosity.

Any additional comments?

I strongly suggest you download the PDF that comes with the book. It has many drawings that make what the point that the author is trying to make easier to comprehend. There are also many interesting pictures that I found helpful and inspiring.

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